After a five day stay in the Dallas area, we departed this morning, heading West.

With relatives in Waxahachie (half an hour South of Dallas), we spent much of our time visiting there. On Saturday night we played telestrations (a game in which players have to translate between written words and drawn graphics). Here are some of the best:

Usually the most funny rounds occur when images are misinterpreted, and thus the original sentence becomes extremely distorted. In this case, however, one of the best rounds was never misinterpreted but the hilarious drawings make up for it

Waxahachie (I assume it's a Native American term) is pronounced like "walks ah ha chee" said quickly. Dad, on the other hand, consistently tells people, "We're going to wax a hootchie". Sometimes it takes a double-take and a good three count before people realize that we're going to the Dallas suburb and not a Brazilian salon!

​JOHN (Aaron's father and travelling companion on this tour):

We listened to the "Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young-Greatest Hits" album during one of our drives between lectures. The compilation was mostly CSN and not so much Y. But Aaron noticed a new grittiness when Young made the band a quartet. The Canadian guitarist's work often was raw, giving protest songs such as "Ohio" that indignant bite. Contrast that to the exact guitar picking and layered -- or "heavy," as Aaron described it -- harmonies on "Helplessly Hoping," from the bands' self-titled debut album in 1969, when it was a trio.

I thought I'd give a quick lesson about that long playing record, which I purchased. The music obviously helped elbow aside the blossoming pre-metal music of Steppenwolf, Led Zepplin and Jimi Hendrix with its softer, gentler style, and scored well on the charts. CSN's unplugged approach helped other bands embrace more of the same into the early 1970s.

We also listened to an album by The Zombies that included "Time Of The Season." The song reminded me that some friends misheard a few of the lyrics: "It's the time of the season for lov-ing" was perceived as "It's the time of the season for Lov-ey." Who's Lovey? The song was released in 1968, soon after the three-year run of a popular television program titled "Gilligan's Island." One of the seven characters stranded on the uncharted title isle was the wife of a millionaire, whose pet name for her was Lovey.

P.S. Aaron noted that CSN's "Our House" had a descending bass line, which the Beatles used in "Hello Goodbye" and many other songs.